Magickal Herb Gardening by Rev. Carol A. Ingle (Raven)

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Magickal Herb Gardening

 

Now's the time to order seed catalogs and dream about spring when you can put out your new herb garden.  Enjoy!

 

 

How Does Your Garden Grow?

 

My main herb garden...yes I said main herb garden as I have other herbs scattered about the yard...is a small hexagon shaped garden which has a large rock and birdbath in the middle of it. It's about two feet wide on all sides and gets between 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight each day. Believe it or not in that rather small garden grows twenty different varieties of herbs.

The herb garden changes from year to year, depending on what grew well last year and what I might like to try the coming year. 2004 I had Purple Cone Flower, Fever Few, Lemon Balm, Spearmint, Peppermint, Lavendar, Purple Sage, White Sage, Oregano, Thyme, Lemon Thyme, Basil, and Mexican Basil. A word on mint....it's very pervasive! If you're going to plant it in the ground you better 1) really like it and 2) have lots of room for it. I can't tell you how many times I have tilled, shoveled, yanked and pulled up the mint patch only to have it spring back bigger and better than before! Down in the wildflower patches I have Valerian...a wonderful scent if there ever was one! Just a few flowrs in the bedroom is enough to calm me and send me off to a blissful sleep. (Yes, I'm aware the root smells like sweat socks!) I also have some Spanish Broom, which does well some years and other years not so good, but it's hanging in there and this year it did very well.

When I first started this I pulled absolutely every plant that resembled a "weed". My mistake...big mistake. The best investment I ever made was a book by Reader's Digest entitled "The Magic and Medicine of Plants". Lo and Behold! Those "weeds" were actually very useful herbs! Now the rule is if there's something growing wild that is 1) not in the way of anything and 2) I don't know what it is then let it grow. It was this method that allowed me to discover many of the herbs that are cultivated in my gardens. Once I make the determination that it is a useful plant and not a "weed" I harvest the seeds from the plant and then scatter them where I would like the plant to grow next season. This method works quite well.

 

 

SUN OR SHADE

I'd like to take a moment to talk about the sun or shade issues. While it is true that MOST herbs are sun lovers, it is not true of all of them. Take my Foxgloves, all the directions said full sun so I planted my first batch in full sun. They grew to about a foot high and then they died. I was very upset and disappointed, I mean I had followed all the directions so why did it die? It died because the directions lied. Foxglove actually grows best in part shade or dappled shade. I know that because one day I was out in my wildflower garden and there before my eyes was a Foxglove, I still have no idea where it came from but I'm ever so glad to see it return year after year. It was growing beneath a medium sized maple tree where it received mostly shade during the day. Not only was it growing it was a good two and half feet tall at the time I first noticed it growing. Today there's a full wild patch of it growing beneath the deep shade of several evergreens which border the back of my yard. What I'm trying to say here is that if something isn't growing well for you no matter what you're doing then try moving it to a shadier (or sunnier) spot in the yard and see what happens. Always remember to do your best to transplant on an overcast day that's a little on the cool side, this way you avoid (as best you can) having the plant suffer from root shock.

 

 

TO WATER OR NOT TO WATER

Personally I find that the majority of herbs like it a little bit on the dry side...they also grow great in soil that you wouldn't even think of planting anything in at all...for some of them the poorer the soil the better. (We'll come back to that issue). It's usually best to let the soil your herbs are growing in dry out almost completely before giving them a good healthy drink, especially if you have a ground garden. If it hasn't rained in a few days and the weather has been hot, over 85 or so, give them a nice little drink. Water either early in the morning, before 8 or so or later in the evening when the sun has gone down. This prevents the heat from evaporating the water before it can be used by your plants and avoids the plants foliage from being burned during the heat of the day due to water droplets.

If you're growing in containers you'll want to water a little more frequently than that, keeping a good eye on them if they're in clay pots. Clay pots, while beautiful, dry out faster than plastic pots do. By all means leave your containers outside during the growing season, don't take them in at night unless you have some type of pest or animal problem where you live. Allow Mother to care for them outside. However, if you have a lot of rain you will want to bring them inside then. Don't allow them to become so compltely soaked that they can't possibly hold any more or allow rain to puddle in the pot in and around the plant, this will cause mold and rot. Return to them outside when the rain has passed and allow them to soak up the warmth and in sun in their favorite spot. We've had almost a week of rain here this past week and I brought the containers inside after the second day of rain. They were soaked. They couldn't possibly take any more water.

As you go along you will find that in between waterings some plants...most of them...like to be lightly florally fed. That means spraying a light mist of water on the leaves and stems not giving it to the dirty where the roots will suck it up. You can florally feed with a mister bottle if you have containers. If you have a ground garden you might want to pick up a larger pump sprayer at your local hardware store, they can be purchased for anywhere between 10 and 20 dollars depending on how large you want it and how fancy you're getting with it.

 

 

THE DIRT UNDER YOUR FEET

My main herb garden at one time held a rock garden that my mother planted before I was born. It was a very pretty rock garden but went by the by after a while due to neglect. When my husband and I put the addition on the house the back hoe dug up where the rock garden had been and up came all of this clay and yucky soil. I didn't think about it at the time because I didn't know I was going to put an herb garden there then and tell the truth the fact totally escaped me when I did put the garden in. As I said on the first page, I'm a trial and error person when it comes to this not really a by the book person. No one told me I shouldn't plant there. Good thing too or I would have let that nice spot go to waste. As I said the dirt is poor and I don't do much to amend it except to toss out some cow manure and fireplace ash in the beginning of each season and let the rain work it in. The dirt in the wildflower garden is better...sort of...but it's full of roots from the trees and pricker bushes that were once there. It's totally impossible to actually dig there so I scatter odd seeds throughout the year down there and they work themselves into the soil. This actually works quite well. The point here is don't worry if your soil isn't that rich black dirt that we all see people like Roger Swain working in. When it comes to herbs they like fairly poor soil and they almost thrive on a bit of neglect.

 

 

WHAT'S DOIN' IN THE GARDEN

Each night my husband and I take our after dinner coffee outside and walk the yard. It's the best time of the day. We stroll around holding hands and looking at the plants, talking about our day and just being together. This is also very important as you will be able to notice signs of pests and distress if you inspect your plants daily. Also you get to really enjoy the fruits of your labor this way.

Not too much this time of year, fall and all. I brought in the last harvest or oregano and basil and thyme not too long ago. If you harves your basil and thyme early in the season, just as it starts to flower, you can get a second harvest out of it in the fall. For basil, keep picking the flower heads off (use them!) so the plant grows big and full.

Alas, I must say I was neglectful of the gardens this year, working outside the home now and having two teenage daughters doesn't leave much time for such things. I did manage to keep up with a scaled down version of my herbs.

It's time to order gardening catalogs and spending long cold winter days and nights dreaming of spring and flowers. I don't know what I'm going to do next year but I think more containers are on the agenda, the older I get the easier they become.

See you in the spring!

http://www.moonsmusings.com/pagan/herbs.html